The present invention relates to techniques for previewing content package files through a portal, and more particularly, to techniques for previewing content package files through a portal interface before importing the content package files into the portal.
A content package file is a relational data structure file that contains references to other content files. The other content files reside in the same directory as the content package file or in subdirectories of the package content file directory. A content package file may be written in an Extensible Markup Language (XML), for example.
Client-server systems can import content package files to a portal server computer. When a content package file is imported, all of the content files referenced in the content package file are also imported to the portal server computer. The user can view the content package file using a portal.
When a content package file is imported, all of the other content files referred to in the content package file are also imported and stored on the portal server computer. One or more of the referenced content files may be duplicative of a content file currently stored on the portal server computer.
When the referenced content files are imported and “update” mode is used, these referenced content files automatically overwrite any content files previously stored on the portal server computer that have the same names. If the user has, in the interim, updated or otherwise edited content files stored on the portal server computer, those updates and edits are lost if a content file with the same name is imported. This creates a problem, because users have no reliable way of knowing which other content files are referenced in the package content file, until after the package content file and the files it references are imported, and previously updated files with the same name have been erased.
Other problems occur when content package files are imported to a portal server computer. As discussed above, content package files contain references to other content files in the form of path names. These path names in the content package file may contain errors. For example, the path name may be misspelled. In this case, the misspelled path name does not refer to a valid path. As another example, a path name in the content package file may not refer to path where a content file is actually stored. This type of error can occur if a content file is moved from one location to another.
When a user imports a content package file that contains an incorrect path name, the content file referenced by the incorrect path name is not imported to the portal server computer. Instead, the user must locate and then import this content file separately.
It would therefore be desirable to provide techniques for importing content package files through a portal that eliminate these problems.